At halftime of the first Swamp Cup meeting of the season on Tuesday in Centralia, W.F. West was in a good spot. The Bearcats led by six, but more importantly to coach Chris White, they had five players with just one foul. He told his team to take advantage after the break.
“Try to find the line out there,” White said. “Be physical on defense and make them blow the whistle a little bit.”
The Bearcats came out ultra-aggressive on defense, and they stifled the Tigers throughout the second half en route to a 59-39 victory.
“It paid off for us,” White said with a smile.
Both offenses started off hot, combining for 29 points in the opening frame, but the W.F. West defense began to take over in the second quarter. The Bearcats forced five turnovers in the first 3:30 in that frame, going on a 7-0 run to extend their early lead.
W.F. West’s defense continued to dominate into the third, but the offense was struggling to pull away. With 3:23 left in the third, the Bearcats led by five, and White called a timeout.
About 90 seconds later, Fox Rogerson hit the first of three three-pointers in a four-minute span, and the last one pushed the lead to 16. Rogerson went on to finish with 12 points.
In the fourth, Blake Hampton scored eight straight W.F. West points to finish with a team-high 14. Race Rockey added 13, and Hayden Rooney ended the night with nine. Wyatt Hoffman added four points of his own.
“We’re starting to execute better all over the place,” White said. “It's really helping us out a lot. That’s been our Achilles hell, turnovers and poor execution. We’re really starting to put a lot of eggs in that basket, and it’s paying off.”
Alex Stafford added four points and constant defensive pressure off the bench, and Collin Elder got a putback in the final seconds of the third.
“Those kinds of things are fun when the bench feels involved in what’s going on,” White said. “And I feel like we got those guys in at times where it really mattered still … We trusted them to do a lot pretty early, and they did a good job being gritty out there.”
Centralia’s Johnny Ruiz finished the night with a game-high 15 points, including three three-pointers.
“He’s gonna play 100 percent, and he’s going to score,” Centralia coach Jordan Thomas said.
I really liked how he got to his shots. I liked how he got downhill and stopped off of two feet.”
Braden Baine finished with eight points, Trevor Griffis added six, and Alfonso Villaba added five.
Thomas added that there were things he could have done differently to better position his offense, but he also tipped his cap to White and the Bearcats for their defensive effort.
“They took us out of what we wanted to do really well,” Thomas said. “They didn’t make things easy for us at all … I gotta give them a lot of credit.”
Thomas did add that despite the struggles on the offensive end, he was proud of the way his team continued to battle.
“I can sleep good at night thinking about that,” Thomas said.
At the midway point of the league season, the Tigers (3-9, 1-4 2A EvCo) sit in fifth in the EvCo standings, one game back of W.F. West for the district’s final district pigtail spot.
They’ll kick off the second half of league play on Friday at Aberdeen.
The Bearcats (4-9, 2-3 2A EvCo) currently sit in that final playoff spot, and they’ve won their last two EvCo games.
W.F. West will kick off the back half of their league slate on Thursday at home against Tumwater before hosting Black Hills and Aberdeen next Tuesday and Thursday, Jan. 27 and 29. The Bearcats lost their first meeting against all three of those teams.
“We got a heck of a stretch now,” White said. “We’re trying to pay back all those losses. Real tall task, but we’re gonna give it our best. We’re excited.”
